Introduction to the InterSystems API Manager (IAM) Version 2.3
InterSystems API Manager (IAM) is a component of InterSystems IRIS® data platform that allows you to take advantage of microservices and APIs that are either exposed or consumed by your InterSystems IRIS applications. Acting as an API gateway between your InterSystems IRIS servers and applications, it gives you the ability to more effectively monitor and control the traffic of calls between your server-side APIs and your client-side applications. IAM enables you to monitor, control, and govern HTTP-based API traffic.
The more distributed your environment the more critical it becomes to properly govern and monitor your API traffic. IAM enables you to easily route all your traffic through a centralized gateway and forward API requests to appropriate target nodes.
The InterSystems API Manager is powered by Kong Enterprise Version 2.3.3.2, an industry-leading API manager from Kong, Inc. The InterSystems Worldwide Response Center (WRC)Opens in a new tab provides support for IAM including the Kong Enterprise features. The main source of information about IAM is provided by the Kong Enterprise 2.3 documentationOpens in a new tab. InterSystems provides information about installing and upgrading IAM and some details about the IAM environment.
For information on using the previous version of IAM, see InterSystems API Manager (IAM)Opens in a new tab.
Benefits of Using IAM
Using IAM allows you to do the following:
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Monitor your HTTP-based API traffic and understand who is using your APIs; what are your most popular APIs and which could require a rework.
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Control who is using your APIs and restrict usage in various ways. From simple access restrictions to throttling API traffic and fine-tuning request payloads, you have fine-grained control and can react quickly.
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Protect your APIs with central security mechanisms like OAuth2.0 or Key Token Authentication.
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Onboard third-party developers and provide them with a superb developer experience right from the start by providing a dedicated Developer Portal for their needs.
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Scale your API demands and deliver low-latency responses.
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Provide a uniform API for underlying services that have different APIs.
IAM provided with InterSystems IRIS must be used only for APIs that are either provided by InterSystems IRIS or used by InterSystems IRIS. If you want to extend the use of IAM to cover APIs that are independent of InterSystems IRIS, contact InterSystems sales for more information.
Learning About IAM
The IAM Version 2.3 documentation provided by InterSystems includes:
For documentation of previous IAM releases, see IAM Versions.
The Kong Enterprise 2.3 documentationOpens in a new tab covers:
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Kong API GatewayOpens in a new tab — is the open source foundation of Kong Enterprise. It is a lightweight, fast, and flexible cloud-native API gateway. It provides a central way to access REST APIs.
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Kong Admin APIOpens in a new tab — provides a REST API to administer and configure services, routes, plugins, and consumers.
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Kong ManagerOpens in a new tab — is the browser-based tool for monitoring and managing Kong Gateway. In addition to configuring services, routes, plugins, and consumers, you can define security groups, policies and monitor performance.
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Kong Developer PortalOpens in a new tab — provides access to developers, so they can generate API documentation for REST interfaces through their specifications, and manage different versions of REST APIs.
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Kong PluginsOpens in a new tab — provide advanced functionality such as authentication and rate limits.
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Kong VitalsOpens in a new tab — provide metrics about the health and performance of API traffic.
The following features of Kong Enterprise are not included in the InterSystems API Manager: Kong Brain, Kong Immunity, and Kong Studio.
For additional information about IAM, see the InterSystems Developer Community articleOpens in a new tab and the InterSystems online learning siteOpens in a new tab. The online learning site has online classes, videos and documents that cover topics on IAM, such as building FHIR applications and best practices. On the online learning site, search for API Manager for these resources.
